Haha, you know what's really bizarre? I had typed up this whole thing about the teacher for the class in my last post, but then determined it was pointless and deleted it, but she had the worst Minnesota accent I've ever heard. And that shit is contagious. Compared to her, I really don't think mine's all that bad. Certainly my speaking is not all bad compared to your slurred speech, peon.

oh totally, i slur my words together so bad sometimes.

Ok, I just thought maybe you were drunk all the time.

Also, I think it's funny that you're posting in this thread since I nominated you dad at magfest.

that's how i justify posting in this thread. and raub can be here since anyone who has seen his gut can tell he's expecting.

Haha, you know what's really bizarre? I had typed up this whole thing about the teacher for the class in my last post, but then determined it was pointless and deleted it, but she had the worst Minnesota accent I've ever heard. And that shit is contagious. Compared to her, I really don't think mine's all that bad. Certainly my speaking is not all bad compared to your slurred speech, peon.

oh totally, i slur my words together so bad sometimes.

Ok, I just thought maybe you were drunk all the time.

Also, I think it's funny that you're posting in this thread since I nominated you dad at magfest.

that's how i justify posting in this thread. and raub can be here since anyone who has seen his gut can tell he's expecting.

i prefer the term "with child"

Girl Im not about to sit up here and argue with you about who's to blame

I know you guys are all about ignoring other peoples' advice, and rightly so. But, baby talk really is good for a child's development.

It is in the sense that if your baby makes a sound and you repeat it or emulate it, they start to understand the concept. That's not to say you want to mute certain consonants when you are saying real words. You can get most of the desired result mostly by tone, and not by massacring words.

Hmm... I disagree. Why do you think there are some "universal" baby words? Both "father" and "da-da" mean the same thing to us, but your baby doesn't think so. Saying "Come to your father" and "Come to da-da" to a baby are two different things. Babies don't have the cognitive development to say "father", let alone know what the concept of father is. But they do know that you = "da-da".

Real talk.

I think responding in baby talk only reinforces that it's the correct way to pronounce a word. I've always called myself "Daddy" and she says "Dada" because those are the syllables she has available to her now. I also think that when babies say stuff like "Dada" they believe that what they are saying is the same as what you're saying. When we say "Where's Daddy?" she points to me. As she gets older, she'll say "Dahdee". A great example is "water". We've always called it water, but she says "wawa" because she didn't have the ability to say water. Then, the other day she said "wahter". If we just responded to her with "wawa" she'd probably think that was the right way to say it. We would repeat her sounds back to her when she was younger, though. I think there's a difference between responding to their sounds and using baby talk.

Oh and here's a piece of advice I've been told along these same lines. When a kid says a word wrong, you shouldn't say "No it's [correct pronunciation]" because some studies suggest that it can cause stuttering. Makes sense to me, since your kid would be constantly stopping to think about the word to make sure they are getting it right.

I think responding in baby talk only reinforces that it's the correct way to pronounce a word.

I'm pretty sure we were all baby-talked to as babies, and yet none of us think the baby-talk pronunciation is the correct one.

Um yeah, no shit. Obviously at a certain point you learn the right way to pronounce things. Maybe in special ed classes like my brother because his "cute little way of speaking" was encouraged by my family?

For me it boils down more to a matter of respect. Kids understand a shitload more than we give them credit for. I'm shocked by my kid every day with the shit she's picking up by just being alive. Personally I feel that like talking to them like a moron is demeaning. DID SUM ONE MAKE A WIDDLE TINKOOWL!!?!?!?! Really?

I think responding in baby talk only reinforces that it's the correct way to pronounce a word.

I'm pretty sure we were all baby-talked to as babies, and yet none of us think the baby-talk pronunciation is the correct one.

Um yeah, no shit. Obviously at a certain point you learn the right way to pronounce things. Maybe in special ed classes like my brother because his "cute little way of speaking" was encouraged by my family?

For me it boils down more to a matter of respect. Kids understand a shitload more than we give them credit for. I'm shocked by my kid every day with the shit she's picking up by just being alive. Personally I feel that like talking to them like a moron is demeaning. DID SUM ONE MAKE A WIDDLE TINKOOWL!!?!?!?! Really?

Obviously you have to stop at some point. Like once the kid actually starts saying being able to string together words, maybe, I dunno. But also, I doubt most <2 year old kids have any idea what the concept of demeaning is. You would have to have some sort of expected level or respect, respect being another concept that I'm sure most youngins don't know about. The fact that most kids laugh at baby talk leads me to believe that it's something they don't find demeaning.

see girl, only thing im trying to establish with you is not who's right or who's wrong, but what's right and what's wrong, real talk

I think responding in baby talk only reinforces that it's the correct way to pronounce a word.

I'm pretty sure we were all baby-talked to as babies, and yet none of us think the baby-talk pronunciation is the correct one.

Um yeah, no shit. Obviously at a certain point you learn the right way to pronounce things. Maybe in special ed classes like my brother because his "cute little way of speaking" was encouraged by my family?

For me it boils down more to a matter of respect. Kids understand a shitload more than we give them credit for. I'm shocked by my kid every day with the shit she's picking up by just being alive. Personally I feel that like talking to them like a moron is demeaning. DID SUM ONE MAKE A WIDDLE TINKOOWL!!?!?!?! Really?

Obviously you have to stop at some point. Like once the kid actually starts saying being able to string together words, maybe, I dunno. But also, I doubt most <2 year old kids have any idea what the concept of demeaning is. You would have to have some sort of expected level or respect, respect being another concept that I'm sure most youngins don't know about. The fact that most kids laugh at baby talk leads me to believe that it's something they don't find demeaning.

see girl, only thing im trying to establish with you is not who's right or who's wrong, but what's right and what's wrong, real talk

I'm not judging. Like I said earlier, it's all about what the parent thinks is right*. I'm sure part of my aversion to baby talk is due to the fact that I think people sound like goddamned idiots when they use it. Maybe my kid would have been like "OH SHIT THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME HE'S TALKING SO WEIRD!!!" and been pumped. I don't think she missed out on anything so far in her life though.

To reiterate my stance: It worked for me but everyone should always do what they want.

Anytime I felt overwhelmed I'd tell myself that people have been having babies for centuries, and most of those motherfuckers couldn't read, never mind log on to Google. "Just figure it out" is the best advice I've ever gotten. It's not like your kid is going to look up and say "You're doing it wrong." because they've got no idea either.

For me it boils down more to a matter of respect. Kids understand a shitload more than we give them credit for. I'm shocked by my kid every day with the shit she's picking up by just being alive. Personally I feel that like talking to them like a moron is demeaning. DID SUM ONE MAKE A WIDDLE TINKOOWL!!?!?!?! Really?

Why don't you just log in as me and post, because this is almost verbatim my feelings on the subject.

Along the "kids understand more than we give them credit for" lines, I've become a big fan of teaching kids sign language. We did it with my daughter, and I was pretty astounded at what she was able to communicate. Just because she couldn't verbalize it doesn't mean she wasn't thinking it. This may just be anecdotal, but it seems like she was much happier because we could understand what she wanted, and when she did start talking, she was able to progress pretty quickly. Now, she won't shut up, but that's a different story. We've been teaching some basic signs to my son who is 15 months now, and he's starting to pick it up. Last night, he woke up, and I changed him, got him something to drink, held him, and did what I could think to get him to go back to sleep. Finally, he got down, walked into the kitchen, stood in front of the pantry and did the sign for "more." He was hungry. He'd eaten dinner, but apparently it wasn't enough. He ate some cheerios, and was fine. He can't talk yet, but he understands things. I can say, "go find mama," and he'll go through the house looking for her. He does the same with his sister. If he gets fussy, I go down the list of things he might want (drink, eat, toy, etc) and he'll react when I choose the right thing he's after.

Anytime I felt overwhelmed I'd tell myself that people have been having babies for centuries, and most of those motherfuckers couldn't read, never mind log on to Google. "Just figure it out" is the best advice I've ever gotten. It's not like your kid is going to look up and say "You're doing it wrong." because they've got no idea either.

For me it boils down more to a matter of respect. Kids understand a shitload more than we give them credit for. I'm shocked by my kid every day with the shit she's picking up by just being alive. Personally I feel that like talking to them like a moron is demeaning. DID SUM ONE MAKE A WIDDLE TINKOOWL!!?!?!?! Really?

Why don't you just log in as me and post, because this is almost verbatim my feelings on the subject.

Along the "kids understand more than we give them credit for" lines, I've become a big fan of teaching kids sign language. We did it with my daughter, and I was pretty astounded at what she was able to communicate. Just because she couldn't verbalize it doesn't mean she wasn't thinking it. This may just be anecdotal, but it seems like she was much happier because we could understand what she wanted, and when she did start talking, she was able to progress pretty quickly. Now, she won't shut up, but that's a different story. We've been teaching some basic signs to my son who is 15 months now, and he's starting to pick it up. Last night, he woke up, and I changed him, got him something to drink, held him, and did what I could think to get him to go back to sleep. Finally, he got down, walked into the kitchen, stood in front of the pantry and did the sign for "more." He was hungry. He'd eaten dinner, but apparently it wasn't enough. He ate some cheerios, and was fine. He can't talk yet, but he understands things. I can say, "go find mama," and he'll go through the house looking for her. He does the same with his sister. If he gets fussy, I go down the list of things he might want (drink, eat, toy, etc) and he'll react when I choose the right thing he's after.

That is really awesome that you did that. I'm blown away when I see toddlers signing. We talked about teaching sign language but never ended up going through with it. The look on their face when they see you're understanding is the best thing ever. They get this look of utter happiness and pride when they see that they got their point across.